


i could look into your eyes (until the sun comes up)

by seekrest



Series: Spideytorch Week 2020 [1]
Category: Fantastic Four, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: (but not really), Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, M/M, Unrequited Crush, almost 2k of peter waxing poetic about johnny, i mean really is anyone surprised, omg they were roommates, spideytorch week day 2, the usual place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25576759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/pseuds/seekrest
Summary: Peter knows almost everything about Johnny and is still captivated. Still enamored and amazed by the sheer love for life that Johnny has - amusing himself as he flies towards where Peter is standing.He watches as Johnny touches down on the landing, graceful and effortless as he always is - the flames that surrounded him dimming until all that’s in front of him is Johnny.Amazing. Wonderful.FantasticJohnny.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Johnny Storm
Series: Spideytorch Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1853728
Comments: 28
Kudos: 119
Collections: SpideyTorch Week 2020





	i could look into your eyes (until the sun comes up)

Peter hears him before he sees him, humming some indie folk song to himself. 

He smiles as Johnny’s hums turn into a slightly off-key rendition of whatever song it is. 

Four years of knowing Johnny and it was this - little moments when no one else could see him, that fascinated Peter the most. 

Johnny was larger than life - as if anytime he walked into a room, he brought the oxygen everyone desperately needed but hadn’t ever realized they lived without. 

Johnny was fun - always down for an adventure, always quick with a joke, ready to regale Peter with a story that got more exaggerated and more dramatic the more he told it. 

Johnny was _beautiful_ \- in a way that bowled Peter over, suckered him in the gut and made him lose his train of thought. Strong arms that wrapped around him anytime Peter desperately needed it, warm brown skin that was illuminated by his dazzling blonde hair, a smile so bright that it took Peter’s breath away. 

Johnny was a great listener, _fantastic_ he would joke anytime Peter needed a laugh. It was unfair, for someone to be so perfect - effortlessly cool and inviting in a way that Peter could try his hardest at for years and could never be. 

Yet what Peter loved the most about Johnny was the moments when Johnny was all too himself - unseen by cameras or having to put on a show, humming along to songs and bopping around the kitchen of their tiny apartment, completely unaware that he had an audience. 

That was the thing about Johnny, Peter thought - he was always aware he had an audience. Long before he’d ever flown into space, long before he commanded attention as a flying inferno - Peter knew that Johnny had cultivated a personality of always being _on_ , making a name for himself before anyone else could put something else on him. 

Being Human Torch was fitting for Johnny, as if the universe itself had conspired to make it so that his personality matched up with the alter-ego that had been thrust upon him. 

Peter didn’t dwell too much on what that meant for his own sake, looking up once more as the little flame in the distance got closer and closer - arms resting over the railing as Johnny continued to sing to himself. 

It was in these moments - an audience of one, completely unencumbered from any attention or expectations - that Johnny was at his most _him_.

More free. More open. More _light_ \- literally and figuratively. Peter’s smile grew wider the closer Johnny got, barely holding back a laugh at the realization that Johnny wasn’t even singing any kind of coherent lyrics - filling in the blanks with nonsensical words for the ones he didn’t know.

What was better is that Peter’s heard Johnny sing this exact same song before - on early mornings when he’s barely come back from patrol, in the shower after a late night. 

It tickles Peter in the best way, that Johnny knew the words yet was singing them incorrectly - not for an audience or for a laugh. Peter knew Johnny well enough to know that he was singing purely for his own amusement.

No cameras. No attention. Purely for himself, purely for _joy_ \- yet another thing that Peter desperately wishes he could hold on to.

He knows Johnny has dark things in his past - the way the world sees him and the way he interacts with it being something that Peter could never understand, powers or not.

He knows Johnny isn’t perfect - his humor covering up scars and soft spots, his attention-seeking annoying just as much as it could be thrilling.

He knows Johnny is impatient, a short-fuse in many senses - the arguments that had rattled their apartment walls an echo in his mind just as the song Johnny’s singing to himself is.

Peter knows this - knows almost everything about Johnny, and is still captivated. Still enamored and amazed by the sheer love for _life_ that Johnny has - amusing himself as he flies towards where Peter is standing.

He watches as Johnny touches down on the landing, graceful and effortless as he always is - the flames that surrounded him dimming until all that’s in front of him is Johnny.

Amazing. Wonderful. _Fantastic_ Johnny. 

“Hey,” Johnny says casually, “you come here often?”

Peter laughs, Johnny’s smile growing even wider from the reflected moonlight - Johnny coming up to stand beside him as they looked out over the city together.

There were many benefits to rooming with your best friend that you were casually, _desperately_ in love with. Even more so when you both suited up in spandex and flung yourself towards everyday dangers. 

Yet this - a hold over from the days when they barely knew each other - meeting up at all hours at the top of the Statue of Liberty, was something Peter hoped would never change. 

Four years of living together - all possibly coming to an end with Peter’s upcoming graduation. 

Ned had gone to MIT, MJ to Harvard - rooming with Johnny had been convenient at the time, a better alternative than hassling with the dorms or finding some hole in the wall apartment by himself. 

The fact that he still lived in a tiny, hole in the wall apartment hadn’t escaped him - save for the fact that now he shared that tiny space with someone that had become his closest friend, someone that had carved out a place in Peter’s heart and settled there as if it’s where he belonged.

And he did - a pang of something so achingly familiar to him as he pressed his lips together, the sense of loss he feels for a friendship that he hadn’t been brave enough to ruin. 

It wouldn’t be a ruin, Peter thinks - to extend their living situation beyond the guise of graduation, to expand their relationship to include all the things Peter’s only dreamt of when it comes to Johnny, to finally tell Johnny all the things he’s wanted to for years but had been too stupid to say.

Being with Johnny felt like coming home - a feeling he doesn’t want to lose. 

He loved Johnny. He _loved_ him. And here, at the same place they used to meet up back in high school - when Johnny didn’t know he was Spider-Man and the Human Torch had only just come back from space - this is where Peter tried to summon up all his courage. 

Before he gets the chance to, Johnny cuts through the silence and says, “Got our renewal letter. You’d think they’d just email us or something.”

“Oh yeah?” Peter’s voice cracks, forcing himself to stay casual even if Johnny had somehow tapped into the very conversation he both did and did not want to have.

“Slapped it on the door for everyone to see. As if we need Mrs. Baker to celebrate, you know she’d be thrilled if we got kicked out.”

“Mrs. Baker’s not so bad,” Peter says, feeling his heart rate starting to race - trying and failing to calm down, “a little mean, sure but—“

“She threatened to sue you for playing _music_ too loud, Pete,” Johnny says with a scoff, Peter finally turning his head to look at him. “You’re way too nice.”

“Not really,” Peter huffs under his breath, Johnny nudging him gently with his shoulder.

“What’s going on with you?”

“What?” Peter asks, Johnny’s expression changing from teasing into something more serious as he asks, “You’ve been quiet all week. That means something, coming from you. You never shut up.”

Peter rolls his eyes, laughing as he says, “Wow, thanks.”

“Just saying. I know you Pete, a little _too_ well,” Johnny says, wrinkling his nose in a way that’s both irritating and adorable for how much it sends butterflies up and down his chest.

 _Not well enough_ , Peter thinks to himself - the feelings he’s kept so close to his chest over the years feeling now as if they were about to spill over.

This was the perfect time. The _perfect_ segue to share what’s on his mind. 

To tell Johnny that he’s in love with him, to tell Johnny that he wants to live with him forever, to tell Johnny that no matter what happens, he never wants this place _\- their place_ \- to be just a fond memory. 

It didn’t have to be tonight and yet it _had_ to be tonight - a burning desire within him not to let another night pass without telling Johnny how he feels. 

“Like,” Johnny says, “the fact that you’ve been _avoiding_ me.”

“I’m not avoiding you,” Peter’s quick to say, Johnny looking at him as if he doesn’t believe him. “I’m not.”

“You barely speak to me all week, send me a text saying you want to talk, and now that I’m here, you can barely look at me?”

Peter’s eyes shift from the city then back to Johnny, a look of something almost like he was hurt in them as Johnny says, “What’s going on, Pete?”

Peter had a plan - half-baked, not very well-thought out but a plan nonetheless. That plan gets thrown aside in favor of either the most reckless or bravest thing he’s ever done, propelling himself forward and crashing his lips onto Johnny’s.

Johnny freezes before immediately melting into it, one hand gently resting on his shoulder and the other at his waist - Peter leaning back with a huff as he says, “Sorry, I’m— I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Why?” Johnny asks, the breathless way he says it doing nothing for Peter’s heart rate. 

“I should’ve— I’ve wanted to tell you for months, for _years._ We should talk about this, talk about—“

But this time Johnny cuts him off, his lips warm and soft on Peter’s - gentle in a way that sends another wave of butterflies throughout his chest.

It’s all-consuming, the heat emanating off of Johnny’s body and the passion he can feel as his mouth moves against his - just enough for Peter to feel lightheaded until they break apart.

Peter lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, Johnny softly laughing as he rests his forehead against his.

“Like I said, you talk too much.”

Peter’s smiling harder than he has in weeks, hands slowly intertwining with Johnny’s - a warmth in his chest that has nothing to do with the fact that he’s with Johnny and everything to do with the feeling of contentment deep in his bones.

Johnny’s right - Peter talks too much. He’s impulsive and irrational, making a mess of things from acting too fast or not at all.

Yet standing at the top of the Statue of Liberty, a cool breeze passing over them and a smile on his face - all Peter can think is that maybe for once, he didn’t have to explain anything more.

That maybe - considering the look in his eyes, the smile on his face and the gentle squeeze of his hand - Johnny _saw_ Peter too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Idiots in love is the best trope and no I will not be taking criticism. 
> 
> I love it when people scream at me in the comments. [Come hang out with me on tumblr. ](https://seek-rest.tumblr.com)


End file.
